Saint Joseph London, part of KentuckyOne Health, has received the Get With The Guidelines®–Heart Failure Gold Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart Association. The recognition signifies that the hospital has reached an aggressive goal of treating heart failure patients with 85 percent compliance for at least 24 months to core standard levels of care as outlined by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology secondary prevention guidelines for heart failure patients. Get With The Guidelines is a quality improvement initiative that provides hospital staff with tools that follow proven evidence-based guidelines and procedures in caring for heart failure patients to prevent future hospitalizations. Saint Joseph London has a history of achievement with the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines®–Heart Failure program. The facility received the Heart Failure Bronze Quality Achievement Award in 2009, and the Heart Failure Silver Quality Achievement Award in 2010 and 2011. Under Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure, heart failure patients are started on aggressive risk reduction therapies such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, aspirin, diuretics and anticoagulants while in the hospital. They also receive alcohol/drug use and thyroid management counseling as well as referrals for cardiac rehabilitation before being discharged. “The full implementation of national heart failure guideline recommended care is a critical step in preventing recurrent hospitalizations and prolonging the lives of heart failure patients,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., chair of the Get With The Guidelines National Steering Committee and director of the TeleStroke and Acute Stroke Services at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Mass. “The goal of the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines program is to help hospitals like Saint Joseph - London implement appropriate evidence-based care and protocols that will reduce disability and the number of deaths in these patients. Published scientific studies are providing us with more and more evidence that Get With The Guidelines works. Patients are getting the right care they need when they need it. That’s resulting in improved survival.” “We are dedicated to making our care for heart failure patients among the best in the country and implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure program will help us accomplish this goal by making it easier for our professionals to improve the long-term outcome for these patients,” said Virginia Dempsey, president, Saint Joseph London. Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure helps Saint Joseph London’s staff develop and implement acute and secondary prevention guideline processes. The program includes quality-improvement measures such as care maps, discharge protocols, standing orders and measurement tools. This quick and efficient use of guideline tools will enable Saint Joseph London to improve the quality of care it provides heart failure patients, save lives and ultimately, reduce healthcare costs by lowering the recurrence of heart attacks. According to the American Heart Association, about 5.7 million people suffer from heart failure. Statistics also show that, each year, 670,000 new cases are diagnosed and more than 277,000 people will die of heart failure. Kentucky Hospital Association Quality Award Saint Joseph London was also recently recognized by the Kentucky Hospital Association (KHA) at the organization’s annual convention. The hospital received the 2012 KHA Quality Award for its work in reducing Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI or heart attack) readmissions. AMI readmissions were reduced by 43 percent (from a baseline of 23 percent to 13 percent) following implementation of a transition coach and the addition of the AMI specialty clinic. Mary Osborne, Dr. Sadhu, Ben West and Shalan Gibbs oversee the program which continues to improve the quality of care provided by Saint Joseph London. The Kentucky Hospital Association (KHA), established in 1929, represents hospitals, related health care organizations, and integrated health care systems dedicated to sustaining and improving the health status of the citizens of Kentucky. About KentuckyOne Health KentuckyOne Health was formed when two major Kentucky health care organizations came together in 2012. KentuckyOne Health combines the Jewish and Catholic heritages of the two former systems – Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare and Saint Joseph Health System. The nonprofit system is committed to improving the health of Kentuckians by integrating medical research, education, technology and health care services wherever patients receive care. KentuckyOne Health has nearly 200 locations including hospitals, physician groups, clinics, primary care centers, specialty institutes and home health agencies, with more than 13,600 employees across the state of Kentucky and southern Indiana. KentuckyOne Health is the largest health system in Kentucky and has more than 2,325 licensed beds. About Get With The Guidelines Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that empowers healthcare teams to save lives and reduce healthcare costs by helping hospitals follow evidence-based guidelines and recommendations. For more information, visit heart.org/quality.
